(The following story by Steve Tarter appeared on the Journal Star website on January 18, 2010.)
PEORIA, Ill. — More good news for the economy: Container traffic may be picking up.
Twenty-foot-long containers, referred to as 20-foot Equivalent Units, carry most of what we buy in this country. In December, 1.08 million units were handled by U.S. ports, a 1.7 percent increase over December 2008.
“These numbers are a clear sign that retailers are optimistic about 2010,” said Jonathan Gold, an official with the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen year-over-year volume go up, so this is definitely good news,” he said.
Container traffic was down 17 percent in 2009, according to the NRF, but 2010 is likely to see an increase in traffic, said Gold.
Much of that container traffic goes right past Peoria – by rail, said Steve Jaeger, executive director of the Heart of Illinois Regional Port District.
“Asian imports come into the Los Angeles-Long Beach area and are transported by train to Chicago. The biggest carrier, the BNSF Railway, formerly known as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line, comes right through Chillicothe but doesn’t stop,” he said.
“Goods destined for central Illinois come back to this area by truck,” said Jaeger.
Forty percent of what the BNSF carries goes through its Chicago hub, said Steve Forsberg, the railroad’s public affairs director. Four large intermodal facilities in the Chicago area, the newest having just opened in Joliet, allows for the rapid movement of goods, he said.
“The container – the world’s universal shipping box – can be literally transferred in minutes from rail to truck,” said Forsberg, noting that, while the company’s volumes are down at present, BNSF looks forward to “a bright future.”
While Chicago looks to continue handling the bulk of the cargo that comes into the Midwest, Peoria is working on “a long-shot project” to see some of the container traffic action, said Jaeger.
“We’re talking about getting containers on barges and sending them to the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.
Big container ships will be able to pass through the Panama Canal when expansion of the canal is completed by 2013 or 2014, said Jaeger, adding that ships that now stop on the West Coast could make stops in the Gulf or East Coast.
Although most barge traffic presently consists of coal or grain, “There have been some limited efforts to send containers on barges. Most have lost money,” he said.
“Our idea is that Peoria could be a load-out or discharge point to the Gulf Coast. This would be slower freight traffic. The private sector would have to be involved, but a floating warehouse probably wouldn’t work for Wal-Mart,” said Jaeger.